NVIDIA users attention, about the latest drivers

**greycap.raf** · June 25th, 2010, 09:12

I hope I'm seeing things. But the case is that I seem to have lost the specular texture shine since getting this machine back from the shop and naturally they've installed the latest 197.45 drivers on it - no idea what I previously had but they were something like a year and a half old. Has the shine really been dropped (as was the case with ATI several years ago) or am I just doing something wrong?

- EDIT - More issues found. Back when I had the Radeon 9800 the canopies of Spitfire IX's were yellowish and those of Spitfire XIV's were bluish. That wasn't the case with the old Nvidia drivers but now it's happening again. Bloody hell, I'm not liking this, my GeForce wants to emulate a Radeon right down to its flaws and that's definitely not what I want!

And to make it worse I'm running Windows 7 which means I can't use the old (I'm guessing 16x.xx as I faintly remember something like that) drivers so seemingly I'm, so to speak , **** outta luck with this one. I don't feel like going back to XP Home just to run CFS3 the way it was meant to be run.

Yep, getting just a tad irritated here. Robbing me of features I paid for isn't my idea of good customer service.

**Phenozo** · June 25th, 2010, 11:15

~S~ Grey,

I am running a Nvidia Geforce 9800 GT card on a Windows 7 64-Bit system using a 197.45 driver.

Give me a few moments and I'll post screens of both those aircraft canopies for you to compare.

ETO 1.31, Summer, Clear, Morning...

Spitfire IX-c :

Attachment 11266 Attachment 11267

Spitfire Mk XIVc :

Attachment 11270 Attachment 11271

**Naismith** · June 25th, 2010, 11:26

257.21 drivers are working fine.

**greycap.raf** · June 25th, 2010, 12:55

I have 257.21 myself now too - if I can't have old drivers that do what I want I can as well have new ones that are supposed to be better than anything that predeced them. I tried Omega 169.25, Nvidia 175.19, Nvidia 185.81, Nvidia 190.something, Nvidia 197.45 and now Nvidia 257.21.

It's not that the drivers don't work. They do, but unless there's something fundamentally different in how Windows 7 handles CFS3 (and compatibility mode does nothing so I doubt this is the case, will be very happy if proven wrong though) the old shine has been lost and something else has changed too as the canopies have picked up a hue again. Phenozo's shot of the XIV shows the blue-green tint and I should have mentioned that the Mk IX was the AvH model but it doesn't matter here as the XIV already proves the point. It looks just like it did back in the Radeon days.

I probably wouldn't be this disappointed if I had never seen CFS3 in its full glory but I have and now don't, and it's really looking flatter than it used to. The discreet blink of light from a wing, another from a rudder, they do a lot more to the simulation than one might think. And now they're gone apparently for no good reason.

If I had an unlimited amount of time and patience I'd wipe this machine clean, put XP back in, try some really old drivers and see if it worked. Then again if it did I'd have another rage attack as it'd mean that I bought Windows 7 and couldn't use it for full effect. And if it didn't I'd have lost half a week.

**greycap.raf** · June 26th, 2010, 03:05

More testing, the "Reflections" and "Terrain and scenery lighting" options are the ones that don't work anymore. No wonder my aircraft look like they've been painted with the mattest paint in the world and then sandblasted a bit to add to the effect, and the scenery looks flatter than a sheet of paper. No depth whatsoever. Oh well, apparently I don't have to buy another Nvidia card again as their only real advantage over ATI seems to be gone. I just wonder who benefits from throwing old useful features away.

"If it works, don't fiddle with it" struck again.

**OldCrow** · June 26th, 2010, 12:26

So have you come to the conclusion it's the Drivers or Windows 7 or what?

I'm currently using XP with 196.21 and it looks like I've always remembered. I've used Nvidia only for as long as I remember. I was thinking of using the 257.21 drivers but now, with this thread, I'm not sure what to do.

**greycap.raf** · June 26th, 2010, 12:51

Originally Posted by OldCrow

So have you come to the conclusion it's the Drivers or Windows 7 or what?

Windows 7. 99.5% sure. This thread needs renaming but I'll have to contact a mod about it.

I just found out myself two hours ago, having been frustrated to the verge of deciding to quit CFS3 altogether. I have an old 320MB drive as a backup drive (just in case this one fails, not a "real" backup) and I decided to swap it in, install XP on it and do some testing. First I tried the drivers that came with the graphics card and it ran as well as ever. It wasn't clear if it was the drivers or the OS at this point. Then I installed the 257.21 set on it and if anything it ran a couple FPS faster, still looking exactly like it should. You should be safe with your driver upgrade but I doubt you'll see a noticable difference.

So the conclusion is that Windows 7 and CFS3 don't play together as well as Microsoft wants us to believe, "everything that runs in XP runs in 7 too" or something like that. My advice to anyone using an Nvidia card with Windows XP, don't upgrade to Windows 7 unless you absolutely have to. If you're using an ATI card there's nothing to lose.

It seems that I'll have to fall back to XP after all as CFS3 makes up such a big part of my computer usage.

**jaycee** · June 26th, 2010, 12:53

if you download the new drivers and they are not so good as the ones you had, can't you roll back to the previous drivers, or do a system restore, just a thought!!

***MajorMagee*** · June 26th, 2010, 13:49

I've been running a dual boot system for a couple of years for just that same reason. CFS3 works much better in XP than anything else. What I've found is that I'm in XP 99% of the time.

**OldCrow** · June 26th, 2010, 15:52

Originally Posted by greycap.raf

Windows 7. 99.5% sure. This thread needs renaming but I'll have to contact a mod about it.

I just found out myself two hours ago, having been frustrated to the verge of deciding to quit CFS3 altogether. I have an old 320MB drive as a backup drive (just in case this one fails, not a "real" backup) and I decided to swap it in, install XP on it and do some testing. First I tried the drivers that came with the graphics card and it ran as well as ever. It wasn't clear if it was the drivers or the OS at this point. Then I installed the 257.21 set on it and if anything it ran a couple FPS faster, still looking exactly like it should. You should be safe with your driver upgrade but I doubt you'll see a noticable difference.

So the conclusion is that Windows 7 and CFS3 don't play together as well as Microsoft wants us to believe, "everything that runs in XP runs in 7 too" or something like that. My advice to anyone using an Nvidia card with Windows XP, don't upgrade to Windows 7 unless you absolutely have to. If you're using an ATI card there's nothing to lose.

It seems that I'll have to fall back to XP after all as CFS3 makes up such a big part of my computer usage.

Thanks for the update. What a pain in the ass that must've been for you, but it's good "work" like your testing/experimenting/researching is so very helpful to others.

It is much appreciated.

**wsmwsm** · June 26th, 2010, 16:30

Using Vista for a long while now. Quite honestly, I don't see any difference in my intstall since back to the XP days. In fact, Vista (now considered "old" technology) improved the overall look and performance of CFS3.

Don't know about "7", however.

I do have the latest Nvidia driver update as well.

**greycap.raf** · June 27th, 2010, 01:08

Originally Posted by OldCrow

Thanks for the update. What a pain in the ass that must've been for you, but it's good "work" like your testing/experimenting/researching is so very helpful to others.

It is much appreciated.

The biggest pain isn't that I have to return to XP, honestly speaking the advantages of 7 aren't exactly visible in everyday life, but what bugs me quite a lot is the fact that I paid a healthy amount of money for it and now can't use it. Oh well, at least this may prevent others from making the same expensive mistake.

Originally Posted by wsmwsm

Using Vista for a long while now. Quite honestly, I don't see any difference in my intstall since back to the XP days. In fact, Vista (now considered "old" technology) improved the overall look and performance of CFS3.

Don't know about "7", however.

I do have the latest Nvidia driver update as well.

Seeing that Vista is still very much XP under a new skin I don't doubt that at all. I haven't tried CFS3 with it - and probably never will - but it's odd how 7 is said to be "what Vista should have been" and still won't work as well in every aspect.